quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
No, but I can come out of the water and riff…

We will dub it.

GEICO has not substantially raised my rate in 13 years, even in 2012 when I got two tickets in the span of a week. Having had no at-fault accidents and only one comp claim for a cracked windshield helps. I had to use the roadside assistance (small extra cost) once when I locked the keys in the car.

Is your question about LM actually "which incredibly awesome insurance company charges the least?"

For me, this is Erie Insurance.

I think the experiences we all have are more driven by the adjuster and agent personal philosophy than the company. Their compassion and dedication are required to meet our needs.

I refuse to consider a company whosw entire ad campaign is based on "customizing" your insurance, like it's something unique.

Every insurance company lets you customize, from state minimum liability, to various higher liability levels, collision, comprehensive, uninsured motorist, medical payments, roadside assistance, etc.

Not your question, but we've been happy with State Farm. My parents had them for decades and I've had them for over 20 years. My parents luckily bought long term care insurance with them sometime in the early 2000s at around $5,000 per year. My mom has been in assisted living for over 2 years, it pays about $7,000 PER MONTH. We needed a new roof, but hadn't had any significant hail storms, I decided to call State Farm anyway, their adjuster hooked us up with a new roof and new replacement windows on the storm faced sides, a roughly $40,000 claim that went smoothly. Our neighbor's insurance was only going to give them half a roof. I recently put my 2003 Silverado that was mint with 44,000 miles into a ditch, damaging the rust-free rocker panel. The body shop was worried about them totaling it out. They had no problems coughing up $7,500 for that and told the body shop they were good to about $13,000. Finally, I tapped a car at a stop light once, the guy false started, light turned green, he started to go but then stopped for some unknown reason to me. I didn't cause any damage due to him having a trailer hitch. He tried to say I caused prior damage, I had pictures to prove I didn't. State Farm listened to me and denied the liability claim, saving me from a chargeable accident.

I used to work for LM. Both in customer service and claims.

On the service end, it used to be predominantly handled in local offices with overflow to call centers scattered throughout the country. Now it is all handled at the call centers. They still have local offices staffed with sales reps that you can talk to if you need to, however their main goal is sales for obvious reasons. For general policy stuff you need to go through the call centers. All call centers are located in the US however. When I was there they were in AZ, FL, IL and a few others. As with most companies a lot of stuff can be handled online now too.

As for claims, I did large national commercial auto claims, not personal; but the structure is largely the same. You get assigned a primary claims rep but it can also be handled on a team level. Meaning if your rep isn't available you can usually bounce out and speak to someone else if you need to. Or you might get immediately routed to someone else. I believe property is handled similarly.

All in all they are very customer service oriented and will do their best to make sure you're taken care of. Sometimes things fall through the cracks like in any large company but they're usually pretty good at trying to make it right. And, if you ever get stuck and have a social media account, their social media team is VERY responsive to messages and any complaints sent in on there get funneled right to the top. I know this because I was on the receiving end of a few social media complaints (Working in claims it's bound to happen. Claimants get mad when their claim gets denied or they're mad that you have to do an investigation before paying money out off of a policyholder's policy. I never had any that were legit).

All in all you'll pay a little bit of a premium being insured there but it's generally worth it. If you have any questions let me know.



Disclaimer: I haven't worked there in a few years so some things may have changed.

And here's a thought.

Liberty Mutual advertises constantly "Only Pay For What You Need" which to me is obviously catering to the ignorant and trying to convince them that every other car insurance company is going to screw them by charging them for things they don't need.

I've had car insurance since I was 16 and I've never paid for more than what I needed. That's true of all the different car insurance companies I've used over the years.

I'm sticking with the devil I know.